Each Summer the Last Summer
by When In Doubt Smile
Summary: Summer was the only season Anakin had known before his angel came, so it seemed fitting that summer is when the universe collapses.


Disclaimer: Sadly I don't own Star Wars or the poem Summer. Everything you recognize is property of George Lucas and Ryan Blood, respectively. (Lucky guys.)

Author's Note: The title is from the poem Summer by Ryan Blood.

Each Summer the Last Summer

_Each summer the last summer _

_The only remembered summer_

_In retrospect _

_The one so eagerly_

_Anticipated…_

_What is it about_

_Summer_

_That is so evanescent?_

_Each summer_

_The last summer._

Summer is all Tatooine has ever known. There is no winter, no autumn. Only the myths of falling white particles; which children swear are bits of the wings of angels sent to bless the tiny people below their own celestial domain. Tatooine is a forsaken planet, so many of the adults can tolerate this bit of fancy. There isn't even the tempering of the heat and the chance for the renewal of growth called spring. The inhabitants of the desert planet have never known anything but brutal, unforgiving heat. Which is why it makes sense when the temperature of the planet reaches a new low with the arrival of a group of refugees who need new parts for their ship.

Anakin isn't quite sure what to make of the snow that encases Hoth. After all, he has never seen anything quite like it. He walks through it, each step cautious, as if terrified that he will fall through the white powder to some unknown world. That night is the first time he has a nightmare that comes true. Before that fateful night, he has only inconsequential feelings and dreams of the future, nothing truly bad. When he wakes after seeing the son of their guide brutally murdered, he sits shivering for hours, dreaming of the constant warmth of Tatooine and the gentle sun that had caressed Naboo when he had been there. He hated everything about Tatooine, but he found, deep inside of him, a love for the constant summer that was his old planet. How could monsters and murderers hide in the glaring presence of the sun? The next afternoon, in the middle of the most furious snowstorm Anakin Skywalker will ever see, his new friend, who has helped him understand Hoth and has been the only person the young child actually like on this planet, is killed before his eyes, exactly as he had seen it in his dream. Winter becomes Anakin's most bitter enemy. What good can come of such cold? Maybe the white particles are not bits of the wings of angels after all.

The young Jedi's conviction that summer is the safest and kindest of all the seasons is again confirmed when he is sent to protect Senator Amidala on her home planet and they fall in love. Summer on Naboo is different from any other summer Anakin has experienced. The sun does not beat down harshly like on Tatooine; it does not bring to light the ever-constant pollution like it does on Coruscant. It is gentle and kind. The sun shows the good in people and erases the evil that tries to make its home in cold places. It does not ever cross his mind that a war started in the warmth of that summer, nor does he think, even when he is encased in a tall, black suit, that the best summer of his life was simply the warm, beautiful beginning to a morbid and sick story of the horror of humanity.

††††

For Padmé Naberrie, summer was a nuisance, simply a time of heat and sunburns; she preferred the beauty and the feeling of Naboo being reborn that came with a fresh blanket of snow and winter. She relished in her memories of her summers, swimming and late nights with her sister, whispering secrets under their covers, feigning sleep whenever their parents looked in on them. (It is not until she is a _mature _adult that her father trusts her with the knowledge that her parents always knew what their daughters were doing and that they simply pretended to believe the girls were asleep. Instead of being heart broken, Padmé finds a new love for her parents and their knowledge of bedtime rituals.) But to the young girl, summer meant she was at the furthest point from winter, when snow would fall once again and she would be able to dance and make snow angels in her warmest clothes.

Then Queen Amidala went to a desert planet, a newly elected queen disguised as Padmé, and there she met a little boy. The first thing she noticed was how unbelievably _hot_ it was and she swore she would never complain about the heat of her planet again. That summer Queen Amidala learned that the season of sun was a time to rebuild. When winter came she danced in the snow and wondered about a small boy who was cold on a ship as they flew away from home, and hoped that it was snowing on Coruscant so he could learn that cold wasn't always bad.

Senator Padmé Skywalker would always laugh at how her husband, with no embarrassment, no caution, no sense of shame, always called that summer a year ago The Summer We Got Married. She, in turn, called it The Summer the War Began. In her mind, she can't see how he can forget the war that now rules their lives and only see the 24 hours that was their wedding day. He can't fathom how she can completely ignore something so wonderful. They never argue about it, or even comment on it, but both wonder about it when they think the other is sleeping.

††††

So they continue on, husband and wife, Senator and Jedi, one relishing in the heat of summer and the other dancing in the snow.

††††

It's summer when the universe collapses in on itself. When she leaves the world. When his beautiful daughter, Leia, passes on. When his Master betrays him. When he becomes a slave to a monster called Darth Vader. Vader loves summer, if he is capable of love, because it is when he was born. Anakin, shivering, dying inside a suit that is meant for his body, wishes that he had never seen the beauty or the goodness of summer. He dies wishing for winter and the warm arms of his wife.

††††

The Empire falls in summer. Anakin Skywalker awakes one last time. He gets to see his children, Luke, his redemption, and Leia, the daughter he thought he had lost. He gets to see the wife he had lost so long ago. And like in those gloriously warm months so many years ago on Naboo, the Skywalker family falls in love with summer.

Author Note: Yea! First story is officially published. I am always grateful for reviews, whether the comments are constructive criticism or not. Just please no flames. Thank you for reading.

Have a superb day,

-When In Doubt, Smile


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